Narrow and stiff is the configuration for leverage. The blade holds its line when you twist it into a joint, and the reduced width lets it change angle inside a cut without the spine binding against surrounding meat.
Butchers use the stiff narrow boner for the structural work — finding and opening joints, running along a straight bone, breaking a carcass into primals. It is the knife that does what a flexible blade cannot, which is push back.
Dexter-Russell has made cutlery in Southbridge, Massachusetts since 1818 and is the oldest cutlery manufacturer still operating in the United States.
